The Individual And The Family

10.1163/ej.9789004176348.i-300.44

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Chapter Summary

This chapter examines the decisions of testators that closely involved reliance on the family for aid, namely, instructions for burial, the nomination of executor, the guardianship of children, and the naming of heirs. It set out typical testamentary decisions using a sample of 100 wills from the plague-free year of 1337 and then compare them to the experience of the Black Death using the sample of 225 wills redacted after plague entered Bologna. Executors, who arranged burials, were often family members. The chapter focuses on the role and identities of the important individuals. The executor carried out several important tasks. According to notarial law, the primary purpose of the testament was to name an heir to the patrimony. The chapter turns to this important topic, investigating firstly regular patterns of inheritance and secondly changes that occurred in inheritance choices during the epidemic.